The Parenthood Paradigm
by Keiko Noriko
Summary: Future fic. Sheldon/Penny. A serie of ficlets about the Cooper family.
1. Toys

"Penny, Penny, Penny," a male voice muttered sitting down on the bed and shaking the woman sleeping. She slowly opened her eyes and gazed upon the man in front of her. "You have to do something," he continued as he noticed she was up already - although more awaked is a more fitting expression in this case.

"Yes, get a lock" she replied sarcastically, turning back to go to sleep.

He frowned at her for a while before deciding to ignore her commentary - he would never know if he was supposed to take that seriously or not. She was an enigma even after all these years.

"Isaac is playing with my Obi-Wan Kenobi miniature," he continued, looking disturbed at Penny.

She opened her eyes again and rubbed them; then, she crossed her arms against her chest. She opened and closed her mouth a few times trying to decide what to say and processing the information at the same time.

"Our six-year-old son, Isaac, is playing with toys?" she raised her eyebrows "You're right, what's the matter with him?!" she tried her best to keep the laughter and make a serious face.

"It's not a toy; it's a miniature," he corrected her immediately; "a toy is-"

"Sheldon, sweetie, I don't care," she interrupted him in time of avoiding another lecture about the difference between a toy and a miniature "and frankly, I don't think he does either," she smiled apologetically to him.

"Oh, yeah? Wait until Marie finds your Barbies," he confronted her.

"I gave those to her!" she replied.

He wondered it this was one of the many jokes she made and he didn't get.

"Well, you shouldn't. That kid can be more destructive than gamma rays," he said stubbornly.

Penny chuckled, for some odd reason taking this moment to realize how happy her life had turned out to be. She looked at the man in front of her and they stood in a comfort quiet for a while.

"Listen," she started with a grin playing in her lips. "How about you let Isaac play with that... that…"

"Obi-Wan Kenobi miniature," he completed to her.

"Yeah, that. And, as a reward, I let you play with your toy?" she looked at him suggestively and placed her hand on his.

"That's non-sense, I already told you, they're miniatures," he shook his head.

"I'm not talking about that..." she pushed the blanket to the other side, revealing her perfect body barely covered by what was probably the tiniest nightgown in the world.

"Oh…" he nodded in understanding.

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**Thanks scifigal for the beta!**


	2. Turns

Penny rolled over on the bed, attempting to go back to sleep. She covered her ears with the pillow and hoped it would resolve the annoying sound coming from the other room, she also hoped the person next to her would do something about it.

She kicked him under the sheets – no response. She kicked harder.

"Danger! Danger!" he woke up, sitting on the bed and looking around.

She moaned in cold and pulled the blanket back to her.

"Oh, sorry, sweetie, did I wake you?" she asked innocently, he nodded, still too sleepy to criticize her phrases.

"I'm so sorry. But hey, now that you're awake, don't you want to go check on why the baby's crying? It _is _your turn, after all," she pulled the sheets closer so he wouldn't see her evil smile.

"Did you wake me up on purpose for this?" he frowned suspiciously.

"If you could just wake up for yourself when he cried I wouldn't have to, you know," she replied.

"I'm sorry if I'm not a female and it's not my ears that were selected by nature to hear a crying infant at night," he grumped, explaining himself once again.

"Alright, honey, I forgive you. Now, baby," she shove her hand at Sheldon.

She heard him muttering about something, sighing and finally leaving the bed. She hugged her pillow stronger and grinned satisfied.

It had passed a couple of hours since and Penny woke up again, she had missed the crying and the presence of her husband.

She thought it was best go after him. She put on her robe and went find him still in the baby's bedroom.

"Hum, Sheldon, what are you doing?" she asked, walking to the shelf where he was.

"Looking for a book to read," he replied absently.

"At 4 in the morning? Why?" she looked at him, confused.

"Well, you already interrupted my REM cycles and if I went back to the bedroom I'd interrupt _your _REM cycles," he took a book off of the shelf and started to read the synopsis on the back.

"But it was like two hours ago," she observed.

"Isaac wouldn't go back to sleep, so I decided to read for him, then the book started to get interesting and I had to check the other volumes," he gave the book back to the shelf and re-started his searching.

"Daddy read to you?" Penny asked with a childish voice to the baby in the crib.

"He doesn't understand what we're saying, but a known voice has a calming effect on kids," he explained.

"You recognize daddy's voice? Aw, you're a smart boy, aren't you?" she said with the same voice to the baby.

He rolled his eyes trying to contain the smile playing on his lips. She turned to her husband again and bit her lower lip; she wrapped her arms around him and placed her head on his back.

"Can we go back to bed now? I miss you there," she said softly. He agreed.

"Hey, now that we're both awake do you want to try to give Isaac a little brother or a little sister?" she asked looking at him with a grin and stopping in the hallway.

He glanced at the baby's bedroom "do you really want this all over again?" he raised his eyebrows.

"Well, it's not so bad when the nights end up like this, besides, we have a lot of science people names that can't be wasted," she joked. He pondered.

"Oh, c'mon, I let you explain to me why Dr. Octopus couldn't be controlled by his arms," she teased.

He held his breath. She had won him over and she knew it.

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**No beta reader for this chapter. Sorry if there are any mistakes!**


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